“I never said we’d let you go.”
“And we’re not so sure you told us the truth.” Romano closed the car door, put her back to the vehicle, and asked Bree, “You think he’s lying?”
“I wish I did.” But Bree hadn’t gotten any lying cues from Dillon.
They slid into the vehicle.
“Shit.” Romano punched the steering wheel. “Me either.”
“Let’s get a warrant to search the building supply company property, just in case he stashed her there.”
“I didn’t take any kid!” Dillon shouted from the back seat.
They ignored him.
Romano put the vehicle in reverse and backed out of the alley. “Maybe next time, we could coordinate? I hate it when my partner gets stabbed, and I don’t even know where they are.”
Heat burned Bree’s cold cheeks as she filled out the evidence bag label.
Romano continued. “If you get yourself stabbed, I am not doing that paperwork.”
“Sorry.”
Romano shook her head. “I will say that you’re a lot faster than my old partner. He was a great detective, but the only thing he could run was his mouth.”
They went back to Brown’s Building Supply. Two patrol cars were parked in front of the office. They transferred Dillon to one of the uniforms. Mr. Brown agreed to let them search the premises without a warrant. Normally, they’d prefer to wait for the paperwork, but with a child missing, they took advantage of his offer.
More uniforms arrived and searched the buildings. The city was turning out every available body to find Lena.
But they didn’t find her.
“Now what?” Frustration tasted bitter in Bree’s throat as she climbed back into the Crown Vic. Only about an hour of daylight remained.
“Now we go back to Kelly, ask her more questions, and give her an update.”
An update on how her daughter was still missing.
CHAPTER FOUR
Bree’s heart ached as Kelly broke down sobbing.
“Where is she? Where is Lena?” Kelly hunched on the sofa, her shoulders caved in, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen. “Please tell me you’re still looking for her.”
“Yes,” Romano assured her. “We have alerts out to every officer on duty in the city and surrounding counties.”
James’s father, Marty, came through the door. A few hours of searching the neighborhood around the crime scene had left his cheeks and nose red from the cold. “What can I do?”
Kelly cried harder.
Romano started asking pointed questions. “When did James go back to using?”
“He wasn’t using. Well, maybe he smoked a little pot,” Marty conceded. “But he wasn’t doing anything hard.”
“You don’t know that,” Kelly cried.
Romano gestured to Marty. “Can I talk to you outside?”
“Sure.” Marty followed her out onto the little concrete patio that constituted the backyard.
Bree picked up one of the snapshots of Lena, the one with her holding her stuffed elephant at the zoo.
Romano’s voice sounded muffled through the back door. “Did James have anyone he might have trusted with Lena? Maybe a new girlfriend?”
“I don’t know.” Marty didn’t deny the possibility that James had been seeing someone.
Bree carried the framed picture into the little girl’s bedroom. Kelly had cleaned up. She’d probably wanted something to keep her occupied. Nervous energy didn’t like to be contained.
Standing in the center of the small space, Bree let her eyes drift. They fell on the stuffed elephant, now in the middle of the nearly made bed. Instead of seeing Lena’s room, Bree was transported back to the run-down farm in upstate New York where she’d spent the first eight years of her life. She rarely returned to her hometown. The memories were too painful, but today’s mental trip was unavoidable.
There were too many similarities.
A sad little girl with a stuffed animal friend, a friend she’d taken everywhere to help her cope.
A sound in the doorway caught her attention. Kelly leaned on the jamb.
“I just want my little girl back.” Kelly sniffed.
Bree turned back to the room. Something didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t identify the source of her unease. “Does Lena have any special friends? A neighbor, maybe. Someone she might go to if she were scared.”
“No. She isn’t good at making friends.”
“Can you make a list of people Lena sees on a regular basis? Her teacher, her doctor, anyone who interacts with her frequently. Also, are there any new people in her life?”
“No one new.” Kelly turned away. “I’ll make a list of the rest.”
Bree left the little girl’s room. She could still hear Romano and Marty on the back patio. She walked through the house and went out the front door. On the sidewalk, she turned and stared at the block. She spotted Mrs. Lawrence looking out her own window. Bree turned to the neighbor on the other side of Kelly’s unit and knocked. The light was on.
The man who opened the door wore pajama bottoms, day-old stubble, and dark circles under his eyes. “Sorry. I work nights.” He rubbed his eyes.
Bree showed him her badge and explained that Lena was missing.
“That’s terrible. She’s a cute little thing. Quiet.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
The bridge of his nose wrinkled. “A couple of days ago. I work nights at the hospital as an orderly. I usually get home around nine in the morning.”
“Did you hear Mr. and Mrs. Tyson fighting recently?”
He rolled his eyes. “Like every time he comes over here. I wish she’d just divorce him already.”
“When did you hear them fighting last?” Bree asked.
“Last night.”
Bree straightened. “Do you mean yesterday morning?”
“No. It was definitely last night. I was getting ready to leave for work. It was after eleven. Closer to midnight.”
“Did you hear what they were fighting about?”
He shook his head. “I went to work.”
“And you’re sure it was James?”
“Yep. His blue beater was parked at the curb. Can’t miss it, with that huge dent in the front fender.”
“Thank you.” Bree left the stoop. If James was at the house last night, then Kelly was lying. She marched back to the Tyson house. Bree went inside, looking for her partner.
Kelly had lied about when she’d last seen James. If he’d been here last night around midnight, where was Lena? Where was she now?
From the hall, Bree spotted Romano and Marty still on the patio. She glanced into Lena’s room and saw Kelly smoothing the bed comforter. When she heard Bree enter the room, she froze. Their eyes met.
And the pieces began falling into place.
“I have a little sister.” Bree gestured toward the stuffed elephant on the bed. “When she was young, she took a stuffed rabbit with her everywhere. I mean everywhere. It used to sit on the closed toilet when she took a bath. She wouldn’t let that thing out of her sight.”
“Lena is like that with her elephant. Marty bought it for her at the zoo.”
Then the answer to Bree’s doubts dinged in her head like a fucking bell.